Obama's expected nomination of Summers was a perfect example of that critical flaw. Repeated appointments of inadequate individuals with questionable résumés -- whether out of loyalty or cronyism -- leaves the government vulnerable to recurrent failure.

You have to see this film. It tells about how Brooksley Born, the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) during the Clinton administration, saw, very clearly, the impending disaster on Wall Street and in the financial markets.